substitute pollen patties recipe

[keith pierce]

I am looking for an substitute pollen patties recipe. I never tried it before and want to test it out on one of my apairys, that is in a main ceral crop area, where early forage is scarce, and the farmer has put in early oil seed rape and i wanted to try and give the bees a boost into brood rearing so that they would be ready for it, and also on a few of my nucs, to see what difference it makes. I have searched the forum, but cant seem to come up with one.

[Jon]

Finman on the bkf forum has recipies for pollen patties, I think using brewers yeast.

[Jimbo]

Hi Keith,

Good idea. I have a site that is always slow in the spring due to poor forage. If you find a good recipe can you post it and I will give it a go as well and report back the results

[keith pierce]

Finman on the bkf forum has recipies for pollen patties, I think using brewers yeast.

Yes, but he uses an irradiated pollen in his recipie.I want to be able to just buy my ingredients locally,without having to go on the net.

[Poly Hive]

And he uses it for a very good reason, which is to say it makes the whole a success, and if you can find irridated pollen in the UK then let me know please as I have been trying for years with no success. I used to buy it from a source which is no longer selling. When I used it though it worked a treat.

PH

[mbc]

I've tried a few concoctions ( though none of my little experiments seemed to benefit the bees much/at all compared with the controls) and the ingredients that were easiest to find were soya flour( wholefood shops) brewers yeast ( horse supplement suppliers) and feedbee ( sold by maisemores).
Not much of an endorsement I know, but maybe my bees have ample enough early pollen sources making pollen supplements irrelevant in my locality.

[Adam]

I've used soya flour and brewers yeast on occasions. I don't think my bees really need it as they seem to get enough pollen as soon as they start to fly. Willow is just about upon us :) I've used the recipe at the bottom of this page. http://www.norfolkbee.co.uk/beekeepers-resource/feeding-honeybees